(1) Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of magnetized advertisements, coupons, and the like. More particularly, this invention pertains to a multi-page article that comprises at least one sheet that has removable portions with magnetized material. The removable portions of the sheet may bare advertisements and can be magnetically attached to metallic surfaces.
(2) General Information
Various multi-sheet articles, such as phonebooks, often comprise advertisements for various goods and services. Additionally, discount coupons and the like, are also frequently included in multi-sheet articles. It is often desirous for people using such advertisements and coupons to remove them from the multi-sheet article. For example, it may be desirous to remove an advertisement from a multi-sheet article to simplify future reference. Additionally, it may be necessary to remove a coupon from a multi-sheet article to redeem the benefits associated with the coupon.
To facilitate the removal of advertisements and coupons from multi-sheet articles, frangible connections such as perforations or score lines are often utilized. By forming frangible connections around the periphery of a portion of a sheet, the portion of the sheet can be easily removed by hand, without resort to using scissors or the like. Additionally, the use of frangible connections helps ensure that the removable portions of a sheet of a multi-sheet article are removed cleanly and neatly.
It is also beneficial for removable portions of a sheet to comprise magnetized material. The magnetized material can be used to removably secure the removable portions to metallic surfaces such as refrigerator doors, filing cabinets, or other suitable surfaces. This allows people to easily place the removable portions of the sheet at various desired locations for future reference.
As should be appreciated by people skilled in the art of manufacturing multi-sheet articles, the use of magnetized material in connection with the sheets of a multi-sheet article does present some difficulties and disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that, in general, the use of magnetized material results in sheets being thicker than they otherwise need be. Thus, in general, the use of magnetized material increases the overall thickness of a multi-sheet article. Another disadvantage of using magnetized material is that the magnetized material can create undesirable magnetic forces during the formation of a multi-sheet article. For example, separate portions of magnetized material on separate sheets may attract or repel each other when assembling a multi-sheet article. This can make it difficult to properly align the sheets prior to binding the sheets to each other. Additionally, magnetized material may attract or repel metallic tools utilized during the binding process and thereby impede the binding process. Yet another disadvantage associated with the use of magnetized material is that the magnetized material may not be amenable to all desired binding methods. Still further, the magnetized material may undesirably stiffen a sheet, thereby making it more difficult to turn to a particulr sheet of a multi-sheet article when such article is used.
The present invention allows the use of magnetized material in a multi-sheet article to provide the advantages discussed above, without the above-mentioned disadvantages.